US housing improving, Europe worsening as a whole

Over the long weekend…Starting positive, the US saw the release of some positive housing data, the “highest level of home building in more than four years”, while factory activity declined. read article

In Europe on the other hand, manufacturing went down down down across the board, yes, even Germany. According to Reuters, Cyprus is not the culprit. Maybe March was an outlier and the global recovery is still going strong *cough*. Other European data showed a steady 12% seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for the eurozone in Feburary. For the entire union, this number increased by 0.1% to 10.9%.

It’s only been a week and Cyprus, clearly coached by Greece, has already managed to have its bailout terms eased. The Wall Street Journal got hold of a document showing that the country will have until 2017 ( as opposed to 2016) to reach a 4% budget surplus. As for the capital controls put in place to prevent a bank run after tellers were open for business again on Thursday, may last for more than a week, according to Cyprus central bank governor Panicos Demetriades (see below).

Another country shifting around on the brink of collapse, Argentina, is trying to impress (read distract) its loyal (read angry) bondholders with a new deal: instead of discussing the repayment of old bonds per se, new bonds (different for retail and institutional investors) could be issued and paid off in about 25 years. Where do I sign, that sounds like a great idea. read article

This morning…
The week ahead looks quiet yet depressing, at least if you’re in Europe, but I will spend as much time as possible laughing about Demetriades first name PANICos.

On Thursday will be central banking day, with the Bank of Japan, Bank of England and European Central Bank holding their policy meetings.

Finally, today marks the death of the FSA as we know it and the advent of the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority. The former is an independent shop supervising more or less everybody in financial services (brokers, traders, secretaries, markets…), while the latter is part of the bank of England and will focus on 1,700 banks, insurers and investment firms. read article